110+ Lake Erie Ice Statistics (1973–2026)
Every Lake Erie ice number we could trace to the agency that produced it: 54 winters of NOAA satellite records, the freeze and thaw calendar, and the ice boom at Buffalo. Free to cite and free to embed.
What has changed most is duration. The ice season has fallen from an average of 87 days in the 1970s to 49 days in the 2020s. Lake Erie still freezes about as hard as it always did. It just does not stay frozen.
This page exists because the data behind every “Lake Erie is X% frozen” headline is published by NOAA as a directory of raw text files, and nobody had assembled it. There are 116 statistics below: 62 cited figures plus the 54-year series in full. Every one traces to a government agency, an intergovernmental commission or a federal research laboratory. Nothing is sourced to another statistics page, and where we have done arithmetic on published figures we say so.
The 2026 season in numbers
Where the most recent winter sits against the full record. These are the figures a story about "how frozen Lake Erie got" needs.
- 96.0%
Lake Erie's maximum ice cover in the 2026 ice season, reached on February 5. That ranks 12th of the 54 winters on record. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Back-to-back
2026 and 2025 both cleared 95% maximum ice cover, the first consecutive pair to do so since 2014 and 2015. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- December 15
The date Lake Erie first reached 10% ice cover in the 2026 season, roughly three weeks earlier than the 54-year norm. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 24 days
Days in the 2026 season with Lake Erie at or above 90% ice cover, against a record-wide average of 13.7. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- March 15
The last date Lake Erie held 10% ice cover in 2026. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 58.3%
Maximum ice cover across all five Great Lakes combined in 2026, against a 54-year basin average of 52.1%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
The 54-year record
NOAA's Great Lakes Ice Cover Database has tracked annual maximum ice cover for every Great Lake since 1973. For Lake Erie it is the longest consistent ice record of any of the five.
- 100.0%
Lake Erie's highest recorded maximum ice cover, reached in 1978, 1979, 1996. Three winters in 54 have frozen the lake essentially wall to wall. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 5.4%
The lowest maximum on record, in 1998: the only winter in the entire series when Lake Erie never reached 10% ice cover at any point. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 80.5%
Lake Erie's average annual maximum ice cover across all 54 winters. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 93.9%
The median annual maximum, 13.4 points higher than the average. In a typical winter Lake Erie nearly freezes over; a handful of collapsed seasons drag the mean down. Use the median when you want the normal year. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 35 of 54
Winters in which Lake Erie's maximum ice cover reached 90% or more: 65% of the record. 23 of those reached 95%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 10 of 54
Winters that failed to reach even 50% maximum ice cover: 1983, 1991, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2017, 2020, 2023, 2024. Every one of them falls in 1983 or later. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 27.2 points
The standard deviation of Lake Erie's annual maximum. The year-to-year swing is enormous, which is why a single winter says nothing about a trend. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
Lake Erie against the other four Great Lakes
Lake Erie is the ice lake. Over the same winters, no other Great Lake comes close. The reason is depth: Erie averages 62 feet against Superior’s 483.
- 80.5%
Lake Erie's average annual maximum ice cover, 1973–2026. The highest of the five, despite Erie being the southernmost. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 63.4%
Lake Huron's average annual maximum ice cover, 1973–2026. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 59.6%
Lake Superior's average annual maximum ice cover, 1973–2026. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 38.9%
Lake Michigan's average annual maximum ice cover, 1973–2026. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 29.1%
Lake Ontario's average annual maximum ice cover, 1973–2026. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 52.1%
Average maximum ice cover for the Great Lakes basin as a whole over the same period. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 62 feet
Lake Erie’s average depth, by far the shallowest Great Lake, and the reason it freezes when the others do not. A shallow lake holds less heat and gives it up faster. (US EPA, 2026)
- 483 feet
Lake Superior’s average depth for comparison, nearly eight times Lake Erie’s, which is why the largest and coldest Great Lake still ices over less reliably than the southernmost one. (US EPA, 2026)
- 210 feet
Lake Erie’s maximum depth, all of it in the eastern basin off Long Point. The western basin around the islands is a fraction of that. (US EPA, 2026)
- 116 cubic miles
Lake Erie’s volume, about 2% of the Great Lakes’ 5,439 cubic miles, despite holding roughly 10% of the surface area. (US EPA, 2026)
- 2.6 years
Lake Erie’s water retention time, the shortest of the Great Lakes by a wide margin. Lake Superior’s is 191 years. (US EPA, 2026)
- 9,910 square miles
Lake Erie’s water surface area, the area that the ice-cover percentages on this page are measured against. (US EPA, 2026)
- 871 miles
Lake Erie’s shoreline length including islands, the shortest of the five lakes. (US EPA, 2026)
The freeze calendar: when ice arrives, peaks and leaves
Derived from GLERL's daily concentration file for Lake Erie. "First ice" and "last ice" here mean the first and last dates the lake was charted at 10% cover or more.
- 39 of 54
Winters in which Lake Erie's ice peaked in February, the usual month for maximum ice. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- December 10
The earliest date Lake Erie has reached 10% ice cover, in the 1996 season. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- February 29
The latest first-ice date on record, in 2020, a leap day. That season peaked at just 15.9%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- April 22
The latest Lake Erie has held 10% ice cover into spring, in 2014. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- January 21
The earliest the ice has finished, in 2002, a season that peaked at only 14.4%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 13.7 days
The average number of charted days per winter with Lake Erie at or above 90% ice cover. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 79 days
Days at or above 80% ice cover in 1978, the deepest freeze in the record. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 1
Winters in 54 when Lake Erie never reached 10% ice cover at all: 1998. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
How long the ice lasts
Peak coverage answers "how frozen did it get". Duration answers "for how long", and it is the more useful number for anyone who runs a boat, a dock or a ferry. Measured from the first date Lake Erie reaches 10% cover to the last date it holds it.
- 79 days
The average length of Lake Erie's ice season across the 53 winters that produced one. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 133 days
The longest ice season in the record, in 2014: December 12 to April 22. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 2 days
The shortest, in 2020: ice reached 10% on February 29 and was gone by March 1. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 73 days
The average number of charted days per season actually at or above 10% cover, as against the 79-day calendar span. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis87 → 49 days
Average ice-season length in the 1970s against the 2020s, a fall of 44%, or roughly five and a half weeks. Treat this one with care: the 2020s is only 7 winters so far and includes two near-total collapses, so it overstates the long-run rate. The half-against-half figure below is the conservative version. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 87.0 → 71.7 days
The same comparison across the two halves of the record (1973–1999 against 2000–2026), a decline of 17.6%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis136 → 164
Charted observations per season over those same two halves. Sampling got denser, not sparser, over the period the measured season got shorter, so the shortening is not an artefact of the record thinning out. If anything the denser modern sampling understates it. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
Peak cover vs season length
Ice cover is declining. It is also wildly variable, and those two facts get confused every February.
- 85.5% → 75.5%
Lake Erie's average annual maximum ice cover, first half of the record (1973–1999) against the second (2000–2026). A decline of 11.8% in relative terms. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis11.8% vs 17.6%
The relative decline in Lake Erie's peak ice cover against the decline in the length of its ice season, over the same winters and from the same dataset. Duration is falling roughly 1.5× faster than peak coverage. Lake Erie still freezes about as hard as it always did; it just does not stay frozen. Peak coverage is the figure winter stories usually quote, and it is the one that has moved least. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis58.3% → 45.8%
The same comparison for the Great Lakes basin as a whole, a relative decline of 21.5%, nearly twice Lake Erie's rate. Lake Erie is losing its ice more slowly than the Great Lakes average, not faster. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis66.2%
Lake Erie's average maximum ice cover in the 2020s so far (2020–2026), the lowest decade mean in the record, even though the decade contains two winters above 95%. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- 94.2%
The 1970s decade mean for comparison (1973–1979), the highest in the record. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
- Our analysis27.2 vs 10.1
Year-to-year standard deviation against the total change in the mean between the two halves of the record. The noise is roughly 2.7× the signal, which is why any single winter, icy or bare, proves nothing on its own. (NOAA GLERL, 2026)
The Lake Erie–Niagara River ice boom
Every winter since 1964 a floating steel barrier is strung across the outlet of Lake Erie at Buffalo, to stop ice running down the Niagara River. Its installation and removal dates are the closest thing the lake has to an official start and end of winter.
- 8,800 feet
The length of the ice boom when in position, stretching across the outlet of Lake Erie just southwest of Buffalo’s water intake crib. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 22 spans
The number of spans making up the boom. Each is built from up to 10 steel pontoons. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 30 feet
The length of each steel pontoon, at 30 inches in diameter. The first four spans, between Buffalo Harbor’s inner and outer breakwater, use 16 shorter 15-foot mini pontoons instead. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 400 feet
The interval at which the boom is anchored to the lake bottom, using 2.5-inch steel cables. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 1997–98
The season the boom was fully converted from timber to steel pontoons, improving buoyancy so ice overtops it less often. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 39°F
The water temperature at Buffalo’s intake crib, measured at 30 feet down, that permits installation to begin, or December 16, whichever comes first, under the IJC’s 1967 Order of Approval. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- April 1
The date the Order of Approval requires the boom to be removed by, unless ice cover in eastern Lake Erie exceeds 250 square miles, which delays it. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- April 3
The average opening date across the boom’s history. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- February 28, 2012
The earliest the ice boom has ever been opened. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- May 3, 1971
The latest opening date on record, more than a month past the April 1 target. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- 12 feet
The thickness ice accumulations on Lake Erie can reach when wind piles them up, the condition the boom exists to manage. (IJC / USACE Buffalo, 2016)
- January 8, 2026
The date installation was completed for the 2025–26 season. Work was planned to begin December 14 but persistent high winds in late December made on-water conditions unsafe, pushing completion into January. (IJC Niagara Board of Control, 2026)
- April 23, 2026
The date the boom was removed for the 2025–26 season, three weeks past target, delayed by thick ice around the boom and late-season weather. All components reached dry storage on May 11, 2026. (IJC Niagara Board of Control, 2026)
- April 30, 2025
The 2024–25 removal date, later still, with the boom encased in heavy ice. That season’s installation had been completed on December 19, 2024. (IJC Niagara Board of Control, 2026)
- January 27, 2025
The date high winds overtopped and damaged the ice boom, pushing ice downstream and filling the Maid of the Mist pool at Niagara Falls. (IJC Niagara Board of Control, 2026)
Full series: Lake Erie ice, 1973–2026
Every winter NOAA has recorded, in full. Max is the season's highest charted ice cover and Peak the date it occurred, both from GLERL's annual maximum files. First and Last are the first and last dates the lake was charted at 10% cover or more, and Days is the span between them. All three are derived by us from GLERL's daily concentration file. An ice year is named for its January: the 2026 season began in November 2025.
| Ice year | Max | Peak | First 10% | Last 10% | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 96.0% | February 5 | December 15 | March 15 | 92 |
| 2025 | 95.8% | February 20 | January 7 | March 23 | 77 |
| 2024 | 35.7% | January 22 | January 16 | February 1 | 17 |
| 2023 | 40.2% | February 5 | December 25 | February 10 | 48 |
| 2022 | 93.8% | January 31 | January 11 | March 15 | 65 |
| 2021 | 85.7% | February 20 | January 28 | March 10 | 43 |
| 2020 | 15.9% | February 29 | February 29 | March 1 | 2 |
| 2019 | 94.3% | March 2 | January 20 | March 31 | 72 |
| 2018 | 95.1% | February 9 | December 27 | March 31 | 96 |
| 2017 | 35.5% | February 8 | December 17 | February 8 | 54 |
| 2016 | 78.7% | February 15 | January 18 | March 6 | 49 |
| 2015 | 98.1% | February 18 | January 7 | April 18 | 103 |
| 2014 | 96.1% | March 6 | December 12 | April 22 | 133 |
| 2013 | 83.7% | February 22 | January 22 | March 12 | 51 |
| 2012 | 13.9% | January 21 | January 21 | February 15 | 26 |
| 2011 | 95.8% | February 1 | December 16 | April 3 | 110 |
| 2010 | 93.1% | February 8 | January 1 | March 20 | 80 |
| 2009 | 95.5% | February 5 | December 22 | March 29 | 99 |
| 2008 | 93.4% | March 10 | January 17 | April 7 | 82 |
| 2007 | 95.8% | February 19 | January 27 | April 3 | 68 |
| 2006 | 21.9% | March 2 | December 13 | March 9 | 88 |
| 2005 | 93.0% | February 7 | December 24 | April 2 | 101 |
| 2004 | 95.4% | February 2 | January 7 | April 2 | 87 |
| 2003 | 95.7% | January 27 | December 30 | April 6 | 99 |
| 2002 | 14.4% | January 3 | January 2 | January 21 | 20 |
| 2001 | 94.0% | February 12 | December 17 | April 8 | 114 |
| 2000 | 90.7% | February 1 | January 4 | March 3 | 60 |
| 1999 | 74.8% | January 15 | January 3 | March 20 | 78 |
| 1998 | 5.4% | January 23 | — | — | — |
| 1997 | 99.6% | February 2 | January 1 | March 31 | 91 |
| 1996 | 100.0% | February 5 | December 10 | April 13 | 126 |
| 1995 | 94.0% | February 13 | January 7 | March 22 | 76 |
| 1994 | 96.7% | February 9 | December 29 | April 16 | 110 |
| 1993 | 94.3% | February 24 | January 18 | April 5 | 79 |
| 1992 | 89.8% | February 16 | January 19 | March 19 | 61 |
| 1991 | 35.1% | February 1 | January 7 | March 7 | 61 |
| 1990 | 72.8% | March 9 | December 17 | March 19 | 94 |
| 1989 | 91.6% | February 17 | January 10 | March 24 | 75 |
| 1988 | 91.5% | February 7 | January 4 | April 3 | 91 |
| 1987 | 88.0% | February 14 | January 19 | March 8 | 50 |
| 1986 | 95.5% | February 1 | December 18 | April 4 | 109 |
| 1985 | 96.0% | February 9 | January 2 | April 5 | 95 |
| 1984 | 95.7% | January 18 | December 23 | April 16 | 116 |
| 1983 | 40.8% | February 14 | January 15 | February 25 | 42 |
| 1982 | 99.1% | February 15 | January 7 | April 15 | 100 |
| 1981 | 96.0% | January 14 | December 24 | April 3 | 102 |
| 1980 | 93.4% | March 5 | January 2 | April 7 | 97 |
| 1979 | 100.0% | February 12 | January 2 | April 1 | 91 |
| 1978 | 100.0% | February 8 | December 22 | April 18 | 119 |
| 1977 | 99.8% | February 8 | December 16 | April 5 | 112 |
| 1976 | 95.4% | February 8 | December 26 | March 15 | 81 |
| 1975 | 80.1% | February 13 | January 17 | March 17 | 61 |
| 1974 | 88.5% | February 21 | January 1 | March 18 | 78 |
| 1973 | 95.7% | February 27 | January 5 | March 12 | 68 |
Source: NOAA GLERL annual maximum ice cover, dates of maximum and daily Lake Erie concentration. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
| Decade | Winters | Lake Erie max ice | Basin max ice | Mean season length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s (1973–1979) | 7 | 94.2% | 68.1% | 87 days |
| 1980s (1980–1989) | 10 | 88.8% | 58.3% | 88 days |
| 1990s (1990–1999) | 10 | 76.3% | 51.6% | 86 days |
| 2000s (2000–2009) | 10 | 79.0% | 46.3% | 82 days |
| 2010s (2010–2019) | 10 | 78.4% | 50.5% | 77 days |
| 2020s (2020–2026) | 7 | 66.2% | 38.5% | 49 days |
Decade means computed by Travel Lake Erie from the GLERL series above. The 2020s row covers 7 winters, not ten, and should not be read as a completed decade.
What ice means if you are trying to reach the islands
Lake Erie ice is what closes the Lake Erie Islands every winter. The Miller Ferry and the Jet Express run roughly late March through the fall and stop when ice closes the lake, so the ice-season dates in the table above are, in practice, the dates the islands are unreachable by boat.
From about December through March the only scheduled link is the air taxi out of Erie-Ottawa International at Port Clinton, a ten-minute hop that carries residents, mail and groceries and will happily carry you. That is covered in full on our airports and air taxi guide. A winter visit to a nearly empty Put-in-Bay is one of the stranger and better trips in Ohio, and the 79-day average ice season is the window it happens in.
Two caveats if you plan around ice. First, the shortening season documented above is not making the islands more reachable by ferry. Operators set their seasons on demand and staffing, not on satellite ice charts. Second, a lake charted at 95% cover is not a road. Western basin ice is wind-driven and mobile; the IJC records wind piling Lake Erie ice up to 12 feet thick, and in January 2025 wind overtopped and damaged the ice boom at Buffalo outright. Coverage percentages describe area, not thickness and not safety.
Planning a trip out here?
The ice comes out in March and the islands reopen behind it. When you are ready to plan the warm-weather version, start with the ferry guide, compare the islands, or look at walleye charters for the spring run.
Check Put-in-Bay hotel pricesMethod, and what these numbers do not mean
A few caveats, in full.
- Ice years are named for their January. GLERL's 2026 column holds November 2025 through spring 2026. A story that reports “2025 ice cover” using GLERL's 2025 column is describing the previous winter. This is the single most common error in coverage of this dataset.
- Maximum ice cover is not average ice cover. Every percentage on this page except where stated is the single highest value charted in a season. A winter that hits 96.0% for three days is not a winter that was 96.0% frozen. The two get used interchangeably and they are not interchangeable.
- Coverage is area, not thickness. The satellite charts measure how much of the lake surface has ice on it. They say nothing about how thick it is, whether it is fast to the shore or drifting, or whether it will hold weight.
- Sampling density is not constant. Charted observations per season range from 100 to 197 across the record, and rose from an average of 136 in 1973–1999 to 164 in 2000–2026. Counts of days above a threshold are therefore not strictly comparable across eras. Where we report the shortening of the ice season we note that this bias runs against the finding: denser modern sampling should lengthen measured modern seasons, not shorten them.
- “First ice” and “last ice” are our derivations, not NOAA's. GLERL publishes daily concentrations; the 10% threshold, the season-length figures and the decade means are computed by us from that file. The threshold is a choice, and a different one would give different dates.
- Mean and median disagree sharply: 80.5% against 93.9%. Lake Erie's distribution is heavily left-skewed: most winters nearly freeze it over, and a small number of collapsed seasons pull the average down. If you want to describe a normal winter, the median is the honest figure; the mean understates it by 13.4 points.
- Ice boom dimensions date from 2016. The structural figures (8,800 feet, 22 spans, pontoon sizes) come from a US Army Corps of Engineers description published by the IJC in 2016 and may have changed since. Season dates come from the International Niagara Board of Control's current operational updates.
- Everything recomputes. The statistics on this page are derived from the source files at build time rather than typed in, including the count in the title. When NOAA closes out a season and we re-run the importer, the tables, records, decade means and headline number all update together.
Sources
Every figure above links inline to one of these. All are primary: the agency, commission or laboratory that produced the measurement.
- NOAA GLERL — NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Great Lakes Ice Cover Database. www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/glicd/AMIC.txt
- NOAA GLERL — NOAA GLERL, annual maximum ice cover with dates. www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/glicd/dates_AMIC.txt
- NOAA GLERL — NOAA GLERL, daily average ice cover, Lake Erie. www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/glicd/daily/eri.txt
- US EPA — United States Environmental Protection Agency, Physical Features of the Great Lakes. www.epa.gov/greatlakes/physical-features-great-lakes
- IJC / USACE Buffalo — International Joint Commission, All About the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom. www.ijc.org/en/all-about-lake-erie-niagara-river-ice-boom-0
- IJC Niagara Board of Control — International Joint Commission, International Niagara Board of Control — Ice Boom Information. www.ijc.org/en/nbc/watershed/ice-boom
For live conditions rather than the closed-out seasons above, NOAA publishes ice cover through the winter as it happens: GLERL Great Lakes Ice Cover for maps and current charts, and CoastWatch's daily concentration file for the running numbers by lake. Neither is cited above. Nothing on this page is drawn from an open season.
Lake Erie ice FAQ
Does Lake Erie freeze over completely?
Almost, most years. Lake Erie's annual maximum ice cover has averaged 80.5% since 1973, and the median winter reaches 93.9%, so in a normal year the lake is very nearly covered. Fully covered is rarer. NOAA has recorded 100% maximum ice cover in 3 of 54 winters (1978, 1979, 1996). Lake Erie is the only Great Lake that routinely gets close, because it is by far the shallowest.
What was the iciest winter on Lake Erie?
By maximum coverage, 1978, 1979, 1996 all reached 100%. By duration, 2014 is the record holder: ice held at 10% or more of the lake from December 12 to April 22, a season of 133 days. Duration and peak coverage are different questions, and the record books differ depending on which you ask.
How much of Lake Erie froze in the most recent winter?
The 2026 ice season peaked at 96.0% on February 5, which ranks 12th of the 54 winters NOAA has recorded. Ice first reached 10% on December 15 and last held it on March 15. For live conditions rather than the season summary, NOAA GLERL publishes daily ice concentration through the winter.
Is Lake Erie ice cover declining?
Yes. Peak coverage has fallen relatively little, from an average of 85.5% in 1973–1999 to 75.5% in 2000–2026, a relative drop of 11.8%. The length of the ice season has fallen much further: from an average of 87.0 days to 71.7 days over the same halves. Lake Erie still freezes about as hard as it used to; it does not stay frozen as long. Year-to-year variation is also huge (the standard deviation of the annual maximum is 27.2 points), so no single winter demonstrates a trend in either direction.
Why does Lake Erie freeze more than the other Great Lakes?
Because it is shallow. Lake Erie averages 62 feet deep against Lake Superior's 483 feet, so it holds far less heat and gives it up far faster. That is why the southernmost Great Lake has the highest average maximum ice cover of the five: 80.5%, against 63.4% for Lake Huron and just 29.1% for Lake Ontario.
When does Lake Erie usually freeze and thaw?
Ice typically appears in late December or early January, peaks in February (39 of 54 winters have peaked in that month), and clears through March. The average ice season runs 79 days. The extremes are wide: the earliest ice on record reached 10% on December 10 (1996), and the latest ice held into April 22 (2014).
Has Lake Erie ever failed to freeze?
Once in the 54-year record. In 1998 the lake never reached 10% ice cover at any point in the season, peaking at just 5.4%. Nine other winters failed to reach 50%, and all ten of the sub-50% winters fall in 1983 or later.
What is the Lake Erie ice boom?
A floating steel barrier strung across the outlet of Lake Erie at Buffalo every winter since 1964, to stop ice running down the Niagara River and jamming it. It is 8,800 feet long, made of 22 spans of steel pontoons anchored to the lake bed at 400-foot intervals, and is owned jointly by the New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation. Under the IJC's 1967 Order of Approval it goes in on December 16 or when the water at Buffalo's intake reaches 39°F, and is meant to come out by April 1, though heavy ice regularly delays that. Its install and removal dates are the closest thing Lake Erie has to an official start and end of winter.
Do the Put-in-Bay ferries run in winter?
No. Miller Ferry and Jet Express service runs roughly late March through the fall and stops when ice closes the lake. From about December through March the Griffing Flying Service air taxi out of Erie-Ottawa International in Port Clinton is the only scheduled link to the islands, a ten-minute hop carrying residents, mail and groceries. A winter trip to a nearly empty Put-in-Bay is possible; it just is not possible by boat.
Can you walk or drive across Lake Erie ice?
Treat every ice-cover figure on this page as a satellite measurement, not a safety rating. A lake charted at 95% cover can still be unsafe: western basin ice is wind-driven, it fractures and moves, and the International Joint Commission notes that wind can pile Lake Erie ice into accumulations up to 12 feet thick. In January 2025 wind was strong enough to overtop and damage the ice boom itself. Percentage cover says nothing about thickness, stability or the presence of open leads at any particular spot. Check current local conditions with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Coast Guard rather than inferring anything from a coverage chart.
Compiled by Cherry Myers for Travel Lake Erie. Ice-cover series retrieved from NOAA GLERL on 2026-07-21 and re-checked each spring once NOAA closes out the season. Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this page or reuse the infographic with a link back; if you need the underlying series in a different form, the NOAA files linked above are the original.